Seize the Stars

Life has been crazy lately- I've had family crisis come up that makes my schedule unpredictable, so I had to quit the Shakespeare play I was doing. I feel horribly guilty because it opens next week, but there's no way I can commit to the rigorous schedule of it right now. And I actually got to sing in one scene, and I really miss singing with other people, so I'm rather gutted to be missing out on that. But sometimes there's nothing you can do when everything happens at once. *sigh*

Obviously, I haven't had any time for sewing and I think my Peggy Carter cosplay will have to be shelved. Boo. But I can always wear one of my old Disney Princess outfits for that convention. What I really need to concentrate on making a wardrobe for is TeslaCon! I've been designing random steampunk things for years that I've never actually made, so this is the year to finally do it! I'm washing up some fabric and hoping to start sewing as soon as I have some free time.

My Doctor Who watch-a-thon has resumed with 'Revenge of the Cybermen'. ( Reactions here )

And here we have the grand finale of my Costume Con wardrobe: the pink 1870 ballgown!


( More behind the cut! )

Here is the 1898 green cotton summer suit I made, which I wore on Saturday:


( more behind cut )

Costume Con is this week! The 1870 day dress is almost done but for a few finishing touches, and the 1870 ball dress should hopefully be done just in time! Building a new era of dress from the ground up, including all the underpinnings, took a lot of time, and consequently I have nothing else new to wear during the day on Sunday. I'm wondering now what I should wear, and thinking either the 1870 day dress again; my Lady Mary Crawley cosplay (because when else will I be able to cosplay a character from Downton Abbey? Even if no one gets it, it's still a fun flapper dress!) or my 1860s summer dress- which, while it is pretty, it's also the only 1860s dress I have that currently fits, so I wore it reenacting all last year and am rather tired of it. However, it already has accessories, and hoopskirts have more wow factor than most other styles. IDK.

( pics of said 1860s dress, for the curious )

I really did want to do a dress diary type thing with work-in-progress pics but now it'll have to wait till my next historical dress project- I've got so much sewing to do yet that I even skipped the season finale of Grantchester, and if I give up Masterpiece or Mystery!, you know it's serious! But I still had to watch Mr. Selfridge because no one can give up everything :p

(Grantchester has finally grown on me after all, though it's generally a bit of a downer. But it's a British period mystery show, so there's wasn't much chance I'd able to keep away from it for long, lol. I usually want to scream at Sidney for being a self-destructive human train wreck, and I really don't care for his tortured romance with Amanda at all, but it's all very nice to look at, at least! I'm genuinely fond of Leonard especially, and I very much hope his tentative romance with his new boyfriend doesn't end sadly, because he's a beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves happiness and I will cry if anything bad happens to him.)

Onward to more sewing!

Behold: a random blog update! Nothing terribly exciting to speak of- I've been sewing pretty much constantly and will continue to do so up until the first weekend in May for Costume Con. I have six new Victorian dresses in the works, which means several new period correct undergarments to go with them, so it's a big project, but it's been my dream to go to a costuming convention with a fabulous historical wardrobe to wear for as long as I can remember, so hell or high water will not stop me until they're all done!

Of course, this also means I have very little time for anything else, and already had to give up auditioning for three plays that open the same weekend as the convention. I signed up for dw_guestfest too, and really want to do it, but I've found absolutely no time to write lately either. Still, I hope a miracle will happen between now & my chosen posting date and I'll find time to do it, so I'm not quite ready to give up on the possibility just yet.

Still trying to keep up my epic Classic Who watch-a-thon as well, albeit at a much slower pace. I'm currently watching the beginning of the Fourth Doctor's run, and enjoying the team of Four, Sarah Jane, and Harry immensely. (And now I've finally seen episodes with every single TARDIS team in Classic Who! I'm nearing the end of the voyage! Only two full seasons and a few stray serials left before I'm finished! IDK whether I'm happy or sad to be almost done with this wonderful crazy show.) The Ark in Space was so very good- the design of the space station looked really great, and the story was very suspenseful and totally nail-biting throughout. And Harry is just delightful- I think he wins the prize for best under-reaction for a first time TARDIS-traveller with his mildly concerned "oh, I say!" upon landing on a space station thousands of years in the future! Too bad he doesn't stay through all of next season. And it's still a bit strange to be seeing Sarah Jane so young, after having met her first in 'The Sarah Jane Adventures', but it's also kind of interesting, because if you think about, that must be what it's like to actually live in the timey-wimey Doctor Who universe, where time-travel is real and you don't always meet people in the right order. Doctor Who is weird and I love it.

Anyway, away I go to get some sleep so I can sew more tomorrow.

I've only completed 6 new fics this year, but since everyone else seems to have done this already:( Fic Writing Meme )

Once again, so much to tell since my last update! My panto closed last weekend- it was hard work, but worth it for all the laughter, and all the things I learned, and all the new friends I made. I miss it already! But my friends from the show convinced me to join Facebook after years of resisting, since apparently they have more privacy options now, so at least I'll still be able to hear from them all. (P.S. Facebook is apparently for people with way too much time on their hands- how can anyone sort through it all?! I'm not exactly a social butterfly and have no idea how people can have hundreds upon hundreds of 'friends', but I'm limiting 'friends' to people I've actually met, so that should hopefully keep it manageable. We'll see how it goes, or if I retreat in terror!)

But today is Christmas, so Merry Christmas to everyone! (Or Happy Holidays, since there are many other splendid mid-winter festivities in the world!) I'm celebrating with a turkey dinner and my usual round of old Christmas movies, so I'd say I've had myself a merry little Christmas, and I hope everyone else is having happy and peaceful celebrations too. :D

I wanted to write some holiday-themed Whofic, since I haven't had time to write anything while the panto was running, but earlier this week I had the cast party for our show to go to, and then an actual Christmas cookie party at my house with some friends from the show (which were both so much fun!), so I was cooking and/or cleaning my house this week instead of writing. But there's always New Years, so holiday fic could still happen! I've got all those prompts to fill at dw_allsorts after all. ;D

I'm a bit behind schedule on all my fannish projects at the moment. Stage managing a show is time consuming, and it'll only get worse the closer to opening night we get. I'm slightly worrying that I'll only have one of my cosplays done before Chicago TARDIS, and also that I won't have anything at all done for who_at_50. I started a fic, but it veered off into very silly crackfic, and now I don't think the muse of comedy is really with me anymore. *sigh* At least I picked the last day of November for my posting date!

In other news, I went to see the National Tour of Wicked: The Musical, which was absolutely fantastic! I had wanted to go on my birthday or Halloween, but there was one front row center seat left the night before Halloween, so I took it! It was very sweet, and funnier than I expected, and of course it's a gorgeous production. Sitting so close you get to see all the details in the sets and costumes, which are just incredible. You miss some of the pretty staging from that angle, but when the fog effects roll out onto you, and Glinda's bubbles land in your hair, you feel like you're right in the middle of that world. And best of all, you get to see the actor's faces and get drawn into the characters journeys, which is the most important thing to me. The cast I saw was wonderful, and the actresses playing Elphaba (Mary Kate Morrissey) & Glinda (Carrie St. Louis) were perfect. Couldn't have asked for a better birthday present. (Although a friend of mine got to go backstage for a tour and danced with Fiyero- I admit to being slightly jealous!)

Classic Who watching continues- very glad to get to Sarah Jane's eps at last, though my enjoyment of 'The Time Warrior' was a little overshadowed by the fact that I watched it while I was really sick. But yay for Sarah Jane! Though it's a bit strange to see her so young after first meeting her older- it's like this timey-wimey time travel stuff is real!

I was feeling much better by the time I watched 'Invasion of the Dinosaurs', but that one I just plain disliked. ( cut for spoilers )

Random middle of the night updates are better than no updates I suppose, so-

I took the stage manager position after all. I really want to keep doing theater, and I decided it's best not to turn down opportunities when they're handed to you! This means I will be very busy for the next three months, and so I won't have time to make Clara's governess outfit for Chicago TARDIS this year. :(

BUT- I have three other cosplays planned, and one is almost done, one already started, and the other I have all the materials for- and except for painting the flowers and birds onto Ian's Marco Polo jacket, they're relatively simple, so I should still have all three days of the convention covered! Woohoo! I can do this!!! \o/

Also went to see an exhibit of costumes from Downton Abbey last week- it was amazing! They had them set up in a beautiful historic mansion that was modelled on an English country house, so you really got the full 'stepping into history' ambiance. The costumes are half the reason I watch, tbh, and they're all so exquisite in person. The construction details are interesting to see, & getting to look up close from several angles was a real treat! A lot of the beaded & embroidered pieces were actually from the period, and you just don't see handwork like that anymore! Also it was very surprising to see how tiny all the actresses costumes are. You expect them to be very tall because they have so much screen presence, but they're just average people, albeit very thin ones! There's hope for us short girls yet, lol.

My Classic Who watch-a-thon has already slowed to a crawl before my rehearsals even start, but I finally managed to watch 'The Three Doctors' last night. I felt very strongly that the Second Doctor was written completely out of character, so that was very disappointing, since I'd hoped for one more story with my lovely, sweet, funny Two, and got a rather obnoxious childish substitute instead. Even the Brigadier felt a bit off- his dryly amused air replaced with outright disdain for the Doctor in some instances, so I think the writers were simply not having a good day. The story was alright, & Benton & Jo were adorable as usual, so that was good at least. And of course, the small bits with William Hartnell as the First Doctor really got to me. However small, they're his last appearance as the Doctor, and he's the original and best, in my book. ♥ On to 'Carnival of Monsters' next!

Whew! My one (and hopefully only!) stint as a stage manager is done! Tech week was incredibly stressful, but by opening night everything was worked out, and the entire run went well. I won't miss the job, & will be really glad to stick to writing & acting in the future, but I'm so proud of the show, & I'll miss all the awesome people so much! We really were incredibly lucky to have such an amazing cast & crew that got along and had such fun on this production. I hope I'll have the chance to work with everyone again on other productions, & hopefully, since we had one of the performances filmed, we'll have one more get-together for a viewing party when the DVD is ready. :)

I'm SO glad I did it, but I'm also really tired, & the one consolation I have amidst all the sad feels of saying goodbye to everyone is that I can finally get some sleep at last!